Page 31 of Caelum

“Life here is relatively free and easy going, Eve. I don’t believe in too many rules, as our souls don’t appreciate being controlled that much. However, please do as your teachers say and don’t try to leave through the front gates.”

“Why?” I wasn’t arguing, just curious.

“The portal is important to us. It’s…” He winced. “This is a conversation best left for another day, Eve, when you’re more aware of our world. Consider Caelum a safe zone. It’s that way for a reason.

“There’s something special about this island,” he continued. “Something to do with things you don’t know about yet. Those books will help you. You need a basic knowledge on most things that children learn in school, so Merry and Damon will judge how much you need to learn.

“But the thing that makes Caelum special helps us control the souls before they manifest.”

I tilted my head to the side at that. “What would have happened if Merry hadn’t found me?”

“The soul would have manifested but…” His smile tightened, and in contrast to his relaxed one of moments before, it sent a wave of chills down my spine—what happened if you weren’t in Caelum when the dominant soul emerged? Did I even want to know the answer? “Truly, Eve,” he rasped, “this is a conversation best left for when you understand us more.”

Though his answer irritated me, I couldn’t complain. Not overly. I was asking him to explain how to run when I’d barely learned to walk in this society.

So, despite wanting answers, rather than arguing, I decided to be proactive. I was armed with a list of books that would educate me. Not just on the world itself, but on this terrifying society that I was now a part of…

Rather than moan, I would leapfrog off this moment and dive into this reading list.

Therein lay all the answers I’d ever need.

NINE

NESTOR

One of the best things about Caelum?

The food.

As a kid, there’d been days when I’d been starving. When I’d literally have killed for something to eat, so I always appreciated food. I’d probably have appreciatedshitfood, but this stuff here?

Manna from the gods.

The dining area was large enough to seat two hundred and ran under the first floor of a large chunk of the main edifice. Meals came in two sittings because there were over five hundred to feed with the faculty to account for, and the shittiest part of hitting my eighteenth year had been, without a doubt, having to graduate from the first to second wave of serving as the younger kids ate first.

The place wasn’t like the shitholes you saw on TV screens about school meals. They served fucking steak. Real food, and none of that processed crap either. Our bodies didn’t deal well with food that wasn’tnatural,and studies had proven that all the chemicals and stuff shoved into ready meals made our souls deteriorate. E numbers and colorants actually made us sicker… that was why most kids didn’t do well when they’d been shoved in mental health ‘retreats’ that were state-funded.

Caelum’s dining hall was comfortable too. Cushioned chairs with circular tables so that groups of friends and Packs could sit together and chill as we ate. There was no rush. Meals were for celebrating here. Food was precious, but for most of us, who’d been homeless or had been withoutgood home-cooked food thanks to being shoved in institutes, we appreciated it more than most.

“You’ll get used to it,” I told Eve that following day as she took a seat with us. This was her first meal here because Lori had fed her in her room, not wanting to overwhelm her with the number of pupils who ate in the canteen.

“Get used to what?” she queried, eying the mashed potatoes and gravy as though it had sprouted a head, then she shot us all a look as we started eating without waiting on her.

Fuck, we trained seven hours a day. We needed the calories! I, for one, was goddamn starving.

“The food.”

Her mouth worked and her hands came up in the position I knew well. Then she frowned, stared down at her hands, back at us and the meals we were already eating, then murmured, “No grace?”

My lips curved. “Nope.”

I wasn’t sure if that concerned her or not, but her hands dropped to her lap the second I’d made the ’n’ sound, so I assumed she was all for it. Reaching for her fork, she spooned up some of the potatoes and asked, “What’s the brown stuff?”

“Dear God, they didn’t have gravy at your place?” I rasped, my heart fluttering in sympathy. Who didn’t know what this amazing stuff was?

“Gravy?” She pursed her lips then dipped the tines of her fork into her mouth. Her eyes flashed wide, and she released a moan that had the three of us freezing.

Holy fuck.

---